The Cleveland Orchestra

Sun., Feb. 8, 3 p.m., $33-$115, Kimmel Center, 300 S. Broad St., 215-893-1999, kimmelcenter.org.

by Peter Burwasser

CLASSICAL

Perhaps no work of Shostakovich is more emblematic of his controversy-filled career than the Seventh Symphony. Premièring in 1941 and dedicated to the besieged city of Leningrad, it was immediately hailed as a grand gesture of defiance against the Nazi menace. Major orchestras clamored for the rights to perform it. After the war, the Seventh Symphony's reputation in the West sank just as quickly, as it became known as crass Stalinist propaganda. More lately, revisionist musicologists have come to believe that Shostakovich encoded the music with anti-Stalinist messages, and an interest in the music has been rekindled. Got that? In any case, the sprawling work is undeniably fascinating, even haunting, and will be the centerpiece of a program by the superb Cleveland Orchestra, with good old Mozart getting things started. Music director Franz Welser-Möst will conduct.

Sun., Feb. 8, 3 p.m., $33-$115, Kimmel Center, 300 S. Broad St., 215-893-1999, kimmelcenter.org.